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Article PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGES ← Page 3 of 5 →
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Provincial Grand Lodges
lections after such addresses , and thereby degrade the Craft by appealing to others for that charity which it is our duty to practise amongst ourselves .
We hope also that Provincial Grand Masters or their Deputiesfor in many cases the Grand Masters are merely ornamental appendages to the Order , serving by high sounding titles to give a false gloss to the position of Masonry in the province—will be careful not only thoroughly to learn their own duties , but to appointrio Brother to office whom they are not fully convinced will do the same .
It may be thought by many that such a caution is unnecessary ; and that if is so in many districts we freely acknowledge—but it is not so in all , for it is only a few months since that we were present at a Provincial Grand Lodge at which the Right Worshipful Grand Master ( a Brother of the highest standing in life , and one w : ho is universally revered in the district in which he lives ) and nearly all , if not every
one , of his Officers read their parts ^ which were written for them on half sheets of foolscap . Kow this should not be , for there is nothing in the opening or closing of any- Lodge—be it private or grand— - which any man of ordinary intelligence ( and none other should be admitted into Freemasonry ) ought to be able to commit to memory within an hour—many men would do so in ten minutes .
We have thus far been general in our remarks , being desirous to abstain from giving offence in any quarter—and merely pointing out defects which we know to exist , in order that they may be avoided for the future . But we now come to a subject on which we are compelled to be specific , because if our reading of the Book of Constitutions be correct , it appears to us that the Provincial Grand Lodge of West Yorkshire—not without some consideration it would seem—
has arrogated to itself a power which it does not possess—whilst the Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master , by sanctioning the proceeding , has delegated to a committee duties which only belong to the Provincial Grand Lodge—and not even to that body until the Provincial Grand Master has called upon it to assist him in the matter .
We are now alluding to the appointment of a committee to act as a permanent Provincial Board of General Purposes . We are not going to recapitulate all the duties of this new Board—for some of them it is probably necessary to put under the supervision of an audit or some other committee—but here is a clause of the highest importance .
" The Board shall have authority to hear and inquire into all subjects of Masonic complaint , or irregularity , respecting Lodges , or individual Masons within the province ; and shall report thereon to the Provincial Grand Master or his Deputy ; and generally to take cognizance of all matters relating thereto , or affecting the honour or welfare of the Craft within the province . " Now what says the Book of Constitutions on the subject ? At page 53 we read : —
u Should tho Provincial Grand Master desire the opinion of his Provincial Grand Lodge on the subject of any Masonic complaint or irregularity 3 ]) 2
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Provincial Grand Lodges
lections after such addresses , and thereby degrade the Craft by appealing to others for that charity which it is our duty to practise amongst ourselves .
We hope also that Provincial Grand Masters or their Deputiesfor in many cases the Grand Masters are merely ornamental appendages to the Order , serving by high sounding titles to give a false gloss to the position of Masonry in the province—will be careful not only thoroughly to learn their own duties , but to appointrio Brother to office whom they are not fully convinced will do the same .
It may be thought by many that such a caution is unnecessary ; and that if is so in many districts we freely acknowledge—but it is not so in all , for it is only a few months since that we were present at a Provincial Grand Lodge at which the Right Worshipful Grand Master ( a Brother of the highest standing in life , and one w : ho is universally revered in the district in which he lives ) and nearly all , if not every
one , of his Officers read their parts ^ which were written for them on half sheets of foolscap . Kow this should not be , for there is nothing in the opening or closing of any- Lodge—be it private or grand— - which any man of ordinary intelligence ( and none other should be admitted into Freemasonry ) ought to be able to commit to memory within an hour—many men would do so in ten minutes .
We have thus far been general in our remarks , being desirous to abstain from giving offence in any quarter—and merely pointing out defects which we know to exist , in order that they may be avoided for the future . But we now come to a subject on which we are compelled to be specific , because if our reading of the Book of Constitutions be correct , it appears to us that the Provincial Grand Lodge of West Yorkshire—not without some consideration it would seem—
has arrogated to itself a power which it does not possess—whilst the Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master , by sanctioning the proceeding , has delegated to a committee duties which only belong to the Provincial Grand Lodge—and not even to that body until the Provincial Grand Master has called upon it to assist him in the matter .
We are now alluding to the appointment of a committee to act as a permanent Provincial Board of General Purposes . We are not going to recapitulate all the duties of this new Board—for some of them it is probably necessary to put under the supervision of an audit or some other committee—but here is a clause of the highest importance .
" The Board shall have authority to hear and inquire into all subjects of Masonic complaint , or irregularity , respecting Lodges , or individual Masons within the province ; and shall report thereon to the Provincial Grand Master or his Deputy ; and generally to take cognizance of all matters relating thereto , or affecting the honour or welfare of the Craft within the province . " Now what says the Book of Constitutions on the subject ? At page 53 we read : —
u Should tho Provincial Grand Master desire the opinion of his Provincial Grand Lodge on the subject of any Masonic complaint or irregularity 3 ]) 2